Before the attack, Verdinelli, 39, was a laid-back easygoing guy. Now he is brooding and doesn't sugar-coat what he says to people, Thompson said.

He also suffers from aphasia — a condition of diminished language skills caused by trauma, and memory loss, she said.

"More often than not, he calls me by our daughter's name," said Thompson, 28.

Verdinelli was the breadwinner for Thompson and their three children. Since the attack, the couple have been denied unemployment compensation and ran out of short-term disability in February.

"Guy worked every day until Aug. 22 at 10:43," Thompson said. "I'm worried about everything, every day. My kids, my home, where we're going to go if we lose this place."

Attack

"I didn't want to go that night," Thompson said. Call it a gut feeling, something just didn't feel right. Still, she, Verdinelli and her friend Tara Robinson went to the American Legion in Red Lion for some karaoke, she said.

Verdinelli had been drinking that night, even before they reached the Legion, downing a couple shots of moonshine, she said. Once there, he had some rum and Cokes, she said.

Leaving the Legion at about 10:35 p.m., the three cut through a bank parking lot and saw the three men, who entered the lot from a nearby alley.

"We figured it was people from the tavern," Thompson said.

Verdinelli had walked ahead of the women, and so the three men were able to get in front of Thompson and Robinson.

Verdinelli noticed what was going on and came back, telling the men to leave them alone, that they were headed home.

But the men followed them to the end of the lot. Thompson recognized one of the men as Devin Flaharty, 19, and told Verdinelli.

"Devin, I know who your dad is, you don't want to do this," Verdinelli told him.

Flaharty then shoved Verdinelli and Thompson - who was six months pregnant with their third child - stepped in between the two. A second man, alleged to be Danny Graffius, 19, pushed Thompson.

"Guy never raised a fist," she said. "He pushed them back to get them off me."

When Thompson pulled out her cellphone and began calling 911 and the men ran away.

"You guys aren't leaving, you guys are going to stay until the cops come," Verdinelli told them, and ran after them.

When the men stopped running and Verdinelli caught up to them, Graffius raised his fist, as if he was going to strike Verdinelli. Flaharty, who was standing behind Verdinelli, swung a skateboard, baseball-bat style, at Verdinelli.

According to an arrest warrant, after Verdinelli fell to the ground, Graffius, wearing a white "wife beater" shirt, punched him in the head four or five times.

The third man did not attack Verdinelli, Thompson said.

"My only anger with him is that he ran away and he didn't help and he didn't turn his friends in," Thompson said.

Robinson ran after the men, Thompson said.

"Within a minute of her leaving, blood started pouring down the pavement surrounding his body," Thompson said.

Recovery

Verdinelli spent two weeks at York Hospital — a week-and-a-half of it in a coma, on a breathing machine.

At their Red Lion home on a recent morning, Verdinelli lifted up his shirt to show the nickel-sized scar where a feeding tube pumped in nutrients and pointed to the other scar at the base of throat where the tracheotomy was performed.

After his release, he was transferred to a rehabilitation facility, where he remained for nearly three weeks.

Earlier this month, he sat on a couch in the cramped second-floor apartment he shares with Thompson and held his infant son, Tristan.

"I never wanted to have a family; then I moved to Pennsylvania and met her," said Verdinelli, who was born in New Jersey and raised in Arizona.

Verdinelli hasn't worked since the attack. Before that, he constructed furniture at a local wood factory.

"I'm the one that usually provided all that," he said. "Now I'm not able to."

But later that day, Verdinelli met with his doctor and got good news. He can return to work with no restrictions.

And this week, Thompson said since Verdinelli was approved for work, he can now apply for unemployment compensation because he doesn't have a job to return to.

"We're excited, this has been what he has wanted since the day he came home from the hospital," Thompson said.

For Verdinelli, the news was not as sweet.

"I love that I'm able to go back to full-time work for my family," he said. "But I wish it would've happened a lot sooner. Financially, we're in the gutter."

Contact Ted Czech at 717-771-2033.

How to help

The attack on Guy Verdinelli rendered him unable to work, and because he was disabled, ineligible to receive unemployment. Verdinelli recently was cleared to work, but he and fiancee Christina Thompson are struggling to pay their rent, utilities and food and clothing for their children. To help them, go to www.gofundme.com/dimy14.

One serving sentence, another still at large

The man who swung and struck Guy Verdinelli with a skateboard, Devin Flaharty, 19, of Windsor Township, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in February.

Police continue to look for a second man in connection with the attack, Danny Graffius, 19. According to the warrant, after Flaharty hit Verdinelli with the skateboard, Graffius punched him four or five times in the head while he was on the ground.

Anyone with information on Graffius' whereabouts is asked to call York Area Regional Police Officer Adam Cohick at 717-741-1259 or 911.